Facebook is partnering with a big UK newspaper to publish sponsored articles downplaying 'technofears' and praising the company

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiles as he arrives to testify before a House Energy and Commerce hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 11, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election and data privacy.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Facebook is paying The Daily Telegraph to run a series of positive sponsored stories about it.

The British newspaper is running dozens of stories that defend Facebook on controversial subjects like terrorism, hate speech, and cyber-bullying.

It shows how Facebook is attempting to sidestep the often-critical media by buying positive coverage of itself.

A spokesperson said it is part of a UK marketing campaign to drive "awareness" of Facebook's investments "that have a positive impact on people's lives."

Facebook has found a novel solution to the never-ending deluge of negative headlines and news articles criticizing the company: Simply paying a British newspaper to run laudatory stories about it.

Facebook has partnered with The Daily Telegraph, a broadsheet British newspaper, to run a series of features about the company, Business Insider has found — including stories that defend it on hot-button issues it has been criticised over like terrorist content, online safety, cyberbullying, fake accounts, and hate speech.

"Fake news, cyberbullying, artificial intelligence — it seems like life in the internet age can be a scary place," the articles say. "That's why Telegraph Spark and Facebook have teamed up to show how Facebook and other social media platforms are harnessing the power of the internet to protect your personal data."

Sponsored native content, in which companies pay for media organizations to produce positive articles that appear similar to traditional news stories, are an increasingly popular method of monetization for many publications, including Business Insider. Some studies have been critical of the ad format, arguing they can mislead news consumers.

Facebook's recent use of the format highlights how in its attempts to burnish its image after years of damaging scandals, the company is exploring ways to sidestep the critical media ecosystem entirely and get out a positive, unadulterated message about itself.

In an email, Facebook spokesperson Vicky Gomes said that "this is a part of our larger marketing efforts in the UK with the goal of educating and driving awareness of our local investments, initiatives, and partnerships here in the UK that have a positive impact on people's lives."

"As part of this campaign, we've partnered with the Telegraph and there will be some profiles of London-based employees working on some of the toughest issues to keep our platform safe, as well as articles to educate people on topics like how to spot fake news and how to adjust their privacy settings," Gomes said.

An example of a story in the series. They're labeled "Brought to you by Facebook," and appear similar to ordinary news stories. The Telegraph

The stories dismiss 'technofears' about the impact of technology on society

"This is an important discussion: does screen-time actually cause harm? It's an area scientists might term 'opinion rich, data poor'. Intuitively, it may feel that kids glued to their phones or wired into a PlayStation 4 causes more harm than good. But science is here to distinguish what we feel from what is true. And the truth is that there is very little evidence to suggest that screen-time is a significant factor in real social and personal issues, including wellbeing, depression and violence.

...

"We are a technological species, and always have been. Maybe the speed of change feels overwhelming, and what is normal to our children is scary for us. But that is the same as it ever was. There may well be qualitative differences in what being online can now offer us in benefits or subterfuge, but we will only progress if we engage with the ever-changing yet ultimately unvarying relationship we have with technology."

The landing page for the series, "Being human in the information age." The Daily Telegraph

Facebook's go-to talking points are all here

Facebook has also produced interviews with some of its European employees as part of the series.

There's one with Steve Hatch, VP of Northern Europe, that's headlined "Why Facebook's mission is to bring the world closer together." Hatch's remarks are largely familiar company talking points — "With a platform of more than 2.2 billion, we have a big responsibility," " "let me say that we never sell people's data," "we've learned that people don't necessarily dislike advertisements per se, just ads that aren't relevant and waste their time," and so on.

And in "'We want to make Facebook safe for everyone,'" product manager Tim Matthews emphasizes Facebook's growth on its "safety and security" team. "We're taking serious measures to get this right. In the past year alone we have more than doubled our safety and security team to 30,000 and invested significantly in cutting-edge technology to help us remove abusive content quicker," he is quoted as saying.

It's not clear how much Facebook is paying The Daily Telegraph for the articles, or who comes up with the initial story ideas. A Facebook spokesperson did not answer further questions about the partnership. The Daily Telegraph did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Facebook has paid for sponsored content with British newspapers before — but on far less politically charged issues. In 2016 and 2017, before its current wave of scandals, it ran a number of stories in left-leaning The Guardian on subjects like growing your business with video, understanding customers, and case studies of succesful companies. The Guardian articles are now offline, b ut remain accessible via the Internet Archive.

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